Day 4:
Nottinghamshire found the required resilience to pick up the significantly enhanced eight-point reward for a draw in their opening LV=Insurance County Championship match after visitors Durham had given their bowlers the whole of the final day to claim 10 wickets and a first victory at Trent Bridge in the competition since 2013.
Two quick wickets for Chris Rushworth gave Durham the start they wanted but they could take only three more after opening batsman Ben Slater had led the way in stifling Notts ambitions, standing firm for 48 overs for his 73.
All-rounder Lyndon James showed real promise with the bat, turning a maiden fifty into a fine unbeaten 79 in only his third first-class match and sharing a 124-run partnership with skipper Steven Mullaney, but with eight and a half overs remaining, it was agreed that would be that for this match.
Durham’s overnight declaration at 332-4, following the county record fifth-wicket partnership between centurions David Bedingham and Ned Eckersley, challenged Nottinghamshire to score 396 to win, a fourth-innings total surpassed only twice in the history of first-class cricket at Trent Bridge, both times in the 1920s.
Rushworth soon made that unlikely prospect even more remote, producing a beauty to bowl Haseeb Hameed for a duck and following up by dismissing Ben Duckett leg before to leave them 21 for two.
But Slater and Joe Clarke added 67 for the third wicket and though Durham celebrated enthusiastically after Clarke, who had looked in good order in making 38, nicked to slip in the last over before lunch but it took them another 20 overs to make another breakthrough as 22-year-old James provided admirably durable support for Slater’s cause. Matt Salisbury’s dismissal of Joe Clarke was his 100th First-Class wicket from 35 appearances.
Indeed, James survived his senior partner, who was the next out, leg before as swivelled to pull Scott Borthwick’s leg spin.
After a sleet shower had forced the players off for an early tea, taking four overs out of the schedule, James reached his half-century from 106 balls with six fours.
Nottinghamshire were able to score much more quickly and as Mullaney pulled Matt Salisbury for his third six a Nottinghamshire was not entirely out of the question.
That possibility promptly disappeared as the next ball took Mullaney’s off and middle stumps out of the ground and after the new ball brought no further breakthroughs Durham agreed that the spoils be shared.
Durham are back in action on Thursday, with a trip to Chelmsford to take on Essex.
Day 4 Reaction: Scott Borthwick
Day 3: Durham (2) 332/4 (Bedingham 180*, Eckersley 113*; 76 overs)
South African batsman David Bedingham turned his maiden first-class century in English cricket into a career-best unbeaten 180 to put Durham in complete control of their LV=Insurance County Championship match at Trent Bridge.
The 26-year-old right-hander, no stranger to the Midlands after three seasons with Plumtree in the Nottinghamshire Premier League, surpassed his previous best of 147 for Boland against Easterns in 2018 to help Durham recover from 22 for three to build a 395 lead with one day remaining.
Bedingham’s fifth-wicket partnership with Ned Eckersley, who finished unbeaten on 113, has added 254, a Durham record for the fifth wicket against any opposition.
It means that Nottinghamshire, whose bowling attack was weakened by the absence of the injured Jake Ball, will – barring something extraordinary – see their woeful run of results in first-class cricket stretch to 28 matches without a win, going back to June 2018.
Bedingham’s performance eclipsed the unbeaten 96 by Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper Tom Moores as the innings of the day, much as the latter had its merits as the home side, once 66 for five, recovered to 267 all out in their first innings.
Moores shared an 89-run stand for the eighth wicket with Brett Hutton, who himself made a 71-ball half-century, before scoring 33 of the 37 runs added for the last two Nottinghamshire wickets. He had taken successive boundaries off Matt Salisbury to be only one shot away from his third career hundred when final partner Jake Ball was out, so he could consider himself unlucky, although he had been dropped on eight and 79.
Ball’s sore back kept him off the field as Durham began their second innings just before lunch but Nottinghamshire’s attack seemed hardly to miss him as Luke Fletcher struck with his second ball to have Alex Lees leg before without scoring and Hutton then dismissed Scott Borthwick, caught at second slip, to leave the visitors five for two for the second time in the match.
Mike Jones fell shortly afterwards but Bedingham looked as sure-footed as he had in the first innings and, after a partnership of 56 with Jack Burnham had drawn Nottinghamshire’s sting, he completed his second half-century of the match when he drove Fletcher handsomely for his seventh boundary.
Hitting the ball cleanly and fluently throughout, his century came with his 12th boundary, crashed through the offside again off Fletcher, and his final tally from 228 balls faced comprised 15 fours and three sixes, one of which disappeared into the upper levels of the Radcliffe Road stand. Eckersley’s hundred, the 16th of his career, came off 123 balls with 11 fours.
Day 3 Reaction: Ned Eckersley
Day 2: Nottinghamshire (1) 165/7 (Moores 40*, Hutton 12*; 48.4 overs)
Durham seized the initiative at a cold and damp Trent Bridge taking control of Day 2 against Nottinghamshire, passing 300 and claiming seven wickets.
The visitors built well on the fightback mounted by Brydon Carse and Ben Raine late on the first evening to post a more competitive first-innings total.
Their seam attack then took advantage of difficult batting conditions on a gloomy afternoon to reduce Nottinghamshire to 85 for six before Tom Moores and Liam Patterson-White stemmed the flow of wickets in a stand of 56.
Durham’s recovery with the bat had been built around Raine’s unbeaten 59 as their last three wickets added 134. His partnership with Carse – ended by Brett Hutton’s first wicket of his second spell as a Nottinghamshire player – added 54 before last man Chris Rushworth helped put on another 59 with 31, which included a divine four to bring up 300.
With the ball zipping around, Ben Slater, Ben Duckett and Steven Mullaney all fell in defensive mode, bemused by late movement that found the edge. Likewise, Haseeb Hameed, who lost his off bail to Matt Salisbury’s best delivery in a three-wicket new-ball spell. Joe Clarke, on the other hand, executed a horrible shot to the ball that followed Hameed’s demise and was caught behind off a bottom edge.
Lyndon James, the young all-rounder, played nicely for his 28 but was caught off a steepling top edge as he swung lavishly at a ball from Carse, Poynter sprinting halfway down the pitch to claim his fourth catch.
Patterson-White gave good back-up to the more experienced Moores in adding 56 for the next wicket but as Poynter pouched a fifth catch and Rushworth a second wicket Nottinghamshire were still 165 behind when the bad light and drizzle that caused a brief stoppage before tea ended play early.
*In common with other grounds, the afternoon session began with players and match officials lining up on the outfield in front of the pavilion to observe a two-minute silence in remembrance of His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, whose death had been announced during the morning. The flag over the pavilion was lowered to half-mast and the players took to the field wearing black armbands.
Day 2 Reaction: Chris Rushworth
Day 1: Durham (1) 241/7 (Carse 21*, Raine 20*; 96 overs)
Durham closed Day 1 of their opening LV=Insurance County Championship match on 241/7 as Alex Lees and David Bedingham both scored half centuries at Trent Bridge.
Asked to bat first on a typical green-tinged early-season pitch, they recovered well from a stuttering start against a Nottinghamshire seam attack that looked potent even with overseas signing Dane Paterson not yet match fit after a long-term injury.
Alex Lees and David Bedingham each made half-centuries and Jack Burnham was well placed to match them if not do better, but fell after tea on 42.
The swift demise of Borthwick, surprised by a Jake Ball yorker that trapped him leg before, followed that of opener Mike Jones in the same over, the fifth of the innings.
Jones, edged to third slip, where Haseeb Hameed held the catch at the second attempt, at which point Durham were five for two.
Otherwise, it was Durham’s morning until the last over, after Nottinghamshire had successfully lobbied to squeeze in an extra one before lunch. Bedingham, who had taken his opportunities efficiently in a 76-ball fifty, faced a decent ball from Luke Fletcher, which he edged to keeper Tom Moores, ending an 88-run partnership for the third wicket.
Durham needed to graft after lunch, but Lees cashed in on a rare loose over from Ball with three boundaries to complete an 118-ball fifty that looked like a strong platform.
Soon afterwards, however, he was wastefully run out as the non-striker, beaten by Joe Clarke’s pin-point throw to the bowler’s end after new partner Burnham had attempted a chancey second run to deep backward square off Lyndon James.
Burnham survived to reach 42 at tea but perished in the first over of the final session, caught behind on the legside as he flicked at a delivery from Fletcher, after which Ned Eckersley and Stuart Poynter fell in quick succession.
It was left to Carse and Raine to survive 16 overs against the second new ball and they have added 45 so far, making it honours even at the close on day 1.
Day 1 Reaction: David Bedingham